The forest of trolls

[Herdo]

I am planning to write a story, then try to make a comic and a game based on the story.
What do you guys think about this plot?

The setting is a medival fantasy world.
A human expedition group accidentally awaken a force of nature, the dragon of clouds.
The dragon flies over the world, cloaking it in clouds, blocking the sun's rays from reaching the surface, leaving the various civilizations in semi-darkness.
But there is one race that's thrilled by the lack of sun: the trolls.
The trolls decide that it is their time to rule over the world, since there's no risk of them turning into stone by the sunlight and thus they begin their invasion, charging out of their wild and wast forest into the human kingdom, built on the plains just outside the forest.
The humans are not prepared for the invasion and soon the defenses have fallen, citizens are slaughtered and raised as golems (zombie thralls of the trolls) and all nobles are kidnapped, to be feasted on during a specific festival of the trolls, that will happen during the next full moon.
There are a few survivors of the human city, and the three main characters manage to end up on the very top of the summit of the mountain that the city is built around, a holy ground that is unplesant for trolls and golems to walk on.

The main characters of the story are:
1) The commander of the guard, a knight who was sleeping during the first parts of the invasion and when he woke up, it was too late to stop them. He is duty-bound to protect the royal family and he will lead the counter attack against the trolls. He is exceptionally skilled at fighting and is one of the few humans who can fight on a equal level as the trolls. He resents the vampire, considering her a dark creature, and a mockery against his beliefs.

2) The arch-mage, a old and powerful wizard who failed to realize the magnitude of the invasion and thus wasn't prepared to meet the troll horde and the foul magic of their shamans. He blames himself to the loss of humanity and is willing to do anything to ensure that the human survivors prevail.

3) The shadow, a vampire who served the royal family as an assassin and intellience master for several generations. She quickly realized that her skills would not be enough to hold off or defeat the troll horde, so she hid in the shadows with her vampire minions, watching her allies die in various gruesome ways at the hands of the trolls and golems. She regrets her choice and is now fighting to reclaim the city from the invaders. She has a crush on the knight, and is dismotivated by his hateful attitude towards her.

The knight and the arch-mage, desperate for vengeance, decide to seek the help of the ancient kings in the royal tomb that is built into summit, a tomb which presence make the summit holy ground, a minimal sanctuary for the survivors.
The ancient kings, angry by the fact that their city has been sacked by monsters, offer a sword for the knight, to help him in his fight against the trolls.
The sword is blessed in two ways:
1) the first strike makes the sword lash out a flare of sunlight, petrifying whatever struck part of the troll.
2) the second swing increases its weight if it struck on the same spot, making it easy to smash the stone parts of the trolls into pieces, denying them the chance of regenerating their wounds.

The trio decide on three duties:
The knight will charge into the forest of trolls, kill all the trolls and save the hostages.
The vampire will lead the retaking of the city, killing the golems and finding and mobilizing all survivors.
The arch-mage will support both of the others and protect the summit from the enemy with his magic.

The knight quickly realizes that he has to kill some specific trolls (bosses) in order for the path to the hostages to open.

Once enough survivors are rescued and the city is retaken, the arch-mage and vampire will lend their powers to the knight, who charge into the heart of the trolls kingdom, the mountain deep within the forest, and then massacre the trolls in order to save the hostages before the troll leader (mountain king, the final boss) completes his wicked ritual which would grant him enough power to conquer the world.

The knight succeeds with his quest, the trolls are defeated, the hostages are safe and the kingdom can finally begin to rebuild.

And it ends with the trio meeting up again and sees the cloud dragon fly overhead, deciding that they will hunt it down and kill it, to bring an end to the neverending clouds.

 

[zerohour]

Could be interesting.

Couple of thoughts:
You should make the Cloud Dragon the main concern, at least at the start. It takes time to mobilize an army, especially if this was an unexpected event.

There might be a meeting of the kingdoms, where the various species get together to debate on how to deal with this new problem. The trolls might even start out as somewhat nice guys, offering lichen or other underground food supplies to help bolster supplies when crops begin to fail. The food supplies could be simply that, or they could be tainted to weaken any resistance. They could also be used as a method to keep other kingdoms out of the fight, since the trolls are the only ones able to reliably supply food.

I'm not sure if I'm expressing this properly, but I'm saying to avoid making the story too simplistic. The best villains have reasons for their actions, and most leaders possess a degree of cunning beyond "KILL." It will have much more of an impact that way, and the final battle would be all the more climatic for it. You want the evil, almighty wizard as the final foe, not the really big ogre who hits hard.


Are there any other Dragons like the Cloud Dragon? Have any of them been unearthed before? Is this merely the first of many events if they aren't stopped? Assuming that the second book/arc is hunting the Cloud Dragon, the next story could be about discovering that more of the ancient beast are awakening, and that the world stands on the brink of a more primal and deadly age. Continents will flow like water as the Lava Dragon stirs from the earth's lifeblood. Hurricanes will annihalate countries as the Storm Dragon spreads its wings. As the Sun Dragon lets out its first breath in ages, cities will burn from its sheer radiance. This is the fate that must be averted, or endured, if they are to survive.

 

[Herdo]

Could be interesting.

Couple of thoughts:
You should make the Cloud Dragon the main concern, at least at the start. It takes time to mobilize an army, especially if this was an unexpected event.

There might be a meeting of the kingdoms, where the various species get together to debate on how to deal with this new problem. The trolls might even start out as somewhat nice guys, offering lichen or other underground food supplies to help bolster supplies when crops begin to fail. The food supplies could be simply that, or they could be tainted to weaken any resistance. They could also be used as a method to keep other kingdoms out of the fight, since the trolls are the only ones able to reliably supply food.

I'm not sure if I'm expressing this properly, but I'm saying to avoid making the story too simplistic. The best villains have reasons for their actions, and most leaders possess a degree of cunning beyond "KILL." It will have much more of an impact that way, and the final battle would be all the more climatic for it. You want the evil, almighty wizard as the final foe, not the really big ogre who hits hard.


Are there any other Dragons like the Cloud Dragon? Have any of them been unearthed before? Is this merely the first of many events if they aren't stopped? Assuming that the second book/arc is hunting the Cloud Dragon, the next story could be about discovering that more of the ancient beast are awakening, and that the world stands on the brink of a more primal and deadly age. Continents will flow like water as the Lava Dragon stirs from the earth's lifeblood. Hurricanes will annihalate countries as the Storm Dragon spreads its wings. As the Sun Dragon lets out its first breath in ages, cities will burn from its sheer radiance. This is the fate that must be averted, or endured, if they are to survive.

Good points.
There are other dragons beside the Cloud Dragon and my plan is to have the Cloud Dragon wake up the rest of its kin to spite the heroes when they defeat it in the second part, which would lead to the third part which is about dragons vs the heroes and the world.

I don't really want the trolls to be nice guys. I imagine them as beings who are intelligent, gifted in various magical arts and vastly superior when it comes to strength and vitality/endurance when compared to other species, and their cruelty is simply the result of them enjoying to deal with beings that are weaker compared to them. The only reason why they are not ruling the world is because their natural weakness to the sunlight that turns them to stone, which prevents conquests and travels, forcing them to stay in the shadows of their mountain and surrounding thick forest.

 

[zerohour]

Maybe nice guys was the wrong way to phrase it. Probably "We don't really like you but there are bigger problems right now" would be better.

The idea behind them helping serves to get them closer and have the others drop their guard. It could serve to explain why humans were so overwhelmed by the invasion. Supplying food could poison a large number of humans, greatly weakening or killing them. There are plenty of ways they could have a more devastating impact if they delay and offer the hand of friendship instead of attacking them right away